Somerset MRT Station
|other = Bus, Taxi|structure = Underground|levels = 3|tracks = 2|parking = No|opened = 12 December 1987|electrified = Yes|ADA = Yes|operator = SMRT Trains (SMRT Corporation)|zone = 1|former = Killiney|platforms = Island}} Somerset MRT Station is an underground station on the North South Line of the Mass Rapid Transit in Singapore, located under 313@Somerset Shopping Centre between Orchard Road and Somerset Road. It was upgraded in 2002, the first phase of station upgrading works on the system. Somerset MRT Station was named in reference to an English playwright, novelist and short story writer, William Somerset Maugham , who wrote a series of stories on Malaya, Borneo and Singapore while staying at Raffles Hotel during his stay in Singapore in the 1930s To commemorate Total Defence Day in 2000, the Singapore Civil Defence Force conducted the first ever Shelter Open House at this station on 15 and 16 February. The section of tracks between this station and Dhoby Ghaut is the shortest between any two MRT Stations on the North South Line, taking 1 minute for a train to travel between these two stations. Unlike most other underground stations, the toilets in this station are located on the street level rather than the concourse level. Opening in 2020, Somerset station will be an interchange station with a new line, Thomson Line. History Prior to the construction of the station, it was named Killiney. It was renamed to Somerset in 1985. The construction requires a slight diversion of Somerset Road from January 1984.1 Somerset MRT Station was completed on 22 July 1985 after the three-month delay that is due to the difficult ground conditions and problems with backup machinery caused by tunneling from the Orchard MRT Station to Somerset MRT Station. Construction of the lifts started in 28 June 2000 and were completed on 11 July 2002. A call was made from a public telephone at the station concourse at about 5 p.m. on 26 September 2007 about a bomb at the station. The police arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with the incident two days later on the morning of 28 September 2007 after finding no bomb. It was upgraded in 2002 under the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP), the first phase of station upgrading works on the system. Somerset MRT Station is also where the students came out from the Centrepoint in 2006. Asked by the students from Tampines Primary School over the last decade, “this is where we re-grouped into several trains, most of them were seated onto the train floors, and also the fare gates over the first generation time were opened.” Concourse Faregates are used for automatic fare collection and provides access between paid and unpaid areas of the station, with at least one bidirectional wide-swinging gate for the benefit of passengers-in-wheelchairs and those carrying bulky items or travelling with prams. Somerset MRT Station is also the station where it trialled the TITAN faregates in April 2010 and were completely replaced in 22 November 2012. Station layout Exits Originally it was one entrance to Centrepoint through Exit B, but due to the construction of 313 @ Somerset, the pedestrian walkways were being diverted. Passenger Usage Patterns Located within the Orchard Road of the Singapore, Somerset serves a large number of developments like shopping centres, office buildings and condominiums, experiencing moderate to high demand due to the influx of 313 @ Somerset and Orchard Central in 2009, and Orchard Gateway in 2014. The station has showed multi-racial society in demand. Underground pedestrian walkways connect to the 313 @ Somerset, of which the first shop you will probably see is New Look (now TEMT). Transport connections Rail Gallery File:1488223_10202852695585224_1187867624_n.jpg|Somerset MRT Station, together with train disruption References External links * Category:Orchard Road Category:Orchard, Singapore Category:Railway stations opened in 1987 Category:Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) stations